Yemen

04/05/2013

In this 2011 file photo, American-born Islamist militant Omar Hammami, right, and deputy leader of Al Shabab Sheik Mukhtar Abu Mansur Robow,
left, sit under a banner which reads "Allah is Great" during a news conference
of the militant group at a farm in southern Mogadishu's Afgoye district in
Somalia (AP Photo/Farah Abdi Warsameh)

When Osama bin Laden wanted to share his thoughts with the
world, he would videotape himself, and though a network of couriers, get that
tape into the hands a broadcaster who was willing to air the clips.

Twitter has given at least one self-proclaimed enemy of America a more
immediate way to communicate.

Born and raised in Alabama
by a Southern Baptist mother and Syrian-born father, Omar Hammami moved to Mogadishu in 2006 and fast became one of the most visible
faces of Somalia’s
war. Seven years later, Hammami is using social media to threaten America, and
have exchanges with analysts, academics and journalists alike.

Hammani, aka @abuamerican, has roughly 1,100 followers on Twitter
and has posted some 1,200 messages on the site. He recently agreed to an
interview with Wired magazine, using Twitter’s direct message function.

“I believe in attacking U.S. interests everywhere,” he told
the magazine over the course a week-long correspondence. “No 2nd thoughts and
no turning back.’

Remembering 9/11, he wrote his neighbours “acted as if they
would not fix my car unless I denounced bin Laden and praised George Bush. 9/11
simply made me more politically [conscious], not knee jerk tho.”

Terror, he told the magazine, was never “my ultimate goal.
jihad was my obligation and the nwo” — that is, the New
World Order — “my enemy.”

The Star’s Michelle Shephard wrote last May about Hammami’s
online biography, in which he remembered a year spent in Toronto in 2004. Hammami’s year in Toronto came after he
converted to Islam and quit university in 2002, dashing his father’s dream that
he would become a surgeon.

Rick Westhead is a foreign
affairs writer at the Star. He was based in India as the Star’s South
Asia bureau chief from 2008 until 2011 and reports on
international aid and development. Follow him on Twitter @rwesthead

03/15/2013

For gamers: "Muslim Mali," which pits Islamic militants against the French Air Force in Mali is reportedly taking Internet jihadi forums by storm. And hey, it's a win-win, even if you lose, you supposedly get a message that says "Congratulations, you have been martyred." Foreign Policy's National Security Reporter John Hudsontried the game so you don't have to.

What terror roundup is complete without the rantings of one of the most famous American jihadists - Omar Hammami, aka: Abu Amriki. He is the Alabama native who spent a year in Toronto - long enough to fall in love with Tim Hortons - before joining the fight in Somalia. He reportedly communicates through Twitter, although there has been some doubt as to whether it is really him. Lately, his tweets have been about as exciting - and frequent - as the teenager who wants to tell you about the bagel she had at lunch, or when she's off for a mani-pedi.

Don't bother following "him" on Twitter, but watch for analysis by Clint Watts on his blog Selected Wisdom or J.M. Berger at Intelwire. They have the patience to communicate with him and read the tweets. Berger says he is convinced it is Hammami.

Earlier this month, Yemen's Al Qaeda branch released its 10th edition of the English-language "Inspire" magazine. The much-ridiculed publication known as Al Qaeda's Cosmo, follows a similar format from past editions despite a new editorial board, including some self-help hints, such as avoiding getting petrol on yourself when you're torching cars. Now you know.

02/25/2013

It's Austrian hostage Dominik Neubauer, a 26-year-old Arabic student who was kidnapped along with a Finnish couple in Sanaa, Yemen, last December. He says on the short video, speaking in English and German, that he will be killed in seven days if ransom is not paid to the Yemeni tribe holding him. The video was posted Feb. 21.

Austrian Foreign Ministery spokesperson Martin Weiss told The Associated Press that the video was the "first proof of life." There is no news on the Finnish couple.

There are many questions about the kidnappings - which are not uncommon in Yemen, but rarer in the capital. Tribal kidnappings in general have historically been hospitable affairs, where hostages are treated as guests as they're used as bargaining chips.

Of course much has changed since the emergence of Yemen's Al Qaeda branch and Yemeni government officials say they believe that Neubauer and his two friends were sold to Al Qaeda members (or allied Ansar al-Sharia) and transfered south of Sanaa to the town of al-Manaseh. As Iona Craig, (a friend of Neubauer's) reported, there was a ground assault in the area last month which the government claimed was an attempt to free the hostages.

Craig wrote on Twitter last week: "The whole idea of a 'friendly Yemeni tribal kidnapping' has just gone
out the window in the one minute seven seconds of that video."

Michelle Shephard is the Toronto Star's National Security correspondent and author
of "Decade of Fear: Reporting from Terrorism's Grey Zone." She is a
three-time recepient of Canada's National Newspaper Award. Follow her on
Twitter @shephardm

02/19/2013

A cardboard cutout of President Ali Abdullah Saleh hangs by a noose over the anti-government protest camp, "Change Square" in Sanaa, Yemen on Feb. 24, 2011. Saleh was pushed from power a year later. (Michelle Shephard/Toronto Star)

Yemen? Well, as the two-year anniversary of the March 18 massacre nears (the day government snipers fired on civilian protesters from rooftops, killing 52) former President Ali Abdullah Saleh has reportedly opened a museum - to honour himself. Al Arabiya News reports that the museum documents his 33 years in power, including a display of some of the clothes he was wearing when he was injured in a June 2011 assassination attempt.

The Yemen Post asks, "one is left to wonder what Yemenis will make of this rather extraordinary display."

The museum is expected to open to the public soon.

Michelle Shephard is the Toronto Star's National Security correspondent and author
of "Decade of Fear: Reporting from Terrorism's Grey Zone." She is a
three-time recepient of Canada's National Newspaper Award. Follow her on
Twitter @shephardm

This was a video photojournalist Jim Rankin shot from our travels in Sanaa last year - a lot of uncertainty at the time:

According to Raghavan, as many had predicted, Yemen's three most influential families "continue to cast a large shadow over the political transition." He writes:

"Unlike leaders of other nations
altered by the Arab Spring revolutions, Yemen’s elites were neither
jailed nor exiled, and they have remained inside the country, free to
operate as they will.

The continuity has helped prevent Yemen from descending into a
Syria-like civil war or erupting into the violent political turmoil seen
in Egypt and Tunisia. But the elites’ lingering influence has also
impeded Yemen’s progress, say activists, analysts and Western diplomats."

Johnsen's take is even more bleak: "Yemen is a broken country and no one - not the US, Saudi Arabia or any
of the varied Yemeni factions - has the strength to put it back together
again." As Johnsen notes, we are halfway through what was supposed to be a two-year political transition period. "(O)ne year left. The clock is ticking."

Michelle Shephard is the Toronto Star's National Security correspondent and author
of "Decade of Fear: Reporting from Terrorism's Grey Zone." She is a
three-time recepient of Canada's National Newspaper Award. Follow her on
Twitter @shephardm

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